Promises
by Konsui's Little Brother
Summary: They're always so easy to make, promises are, but never to keep. Most people just break them without a second thought. Not Sokka. No, he's the type of person that would rather lay down his life then break a promise. Then break these promises.
1. Prologue

A/N: So, I started this story around Christmas time and I've just now got enough of it written up that I'm willing to post it. That, and I know we all need some more good Sokka stories out there; if this can be counted as a 'good' story...

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><p>Promises...They were so easy to make. Sometimes, they are easy to keep. Most of the time, they aren't.<p>

Some people know this but they make the promises, ones they know they won't keep, anyways.

Some people only make the promises that they know they can keep easily.

And then, if you look hard enough, one might be lucky enough to spot one of the few that make the promises they need to make; and then they do everything in their power to keep them.

But those people are hard to come across and, as the years pass by and the promises become harder to keep and heavier on their shoulders, they become easier to break.

Sometimes, they even need a little help.

But, it's these people that have the hardest time getting help. They will give and give and give bits of themselves whenever people ask but they get so little in return.

Why? Because we think that they are strong enough not to need our help. The help of the selfish and the takers and the promise-breakers. We think that they're stronger then that.

But they aren't because, for all the promises they make and keep, there are some things that a person just can't do on their own.

This is the tale of one such person, who will keep his promises over keeping his life.


	2. Kyo

A/N: The first actual chapter! And it stars Sokka's mother! Woohoo! Takes place, obviously, way before the series starts. Hopefully you all think that it turned out as good as I think it did!

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><p><em>-Kyo-<em>

It had all happened so quickly.

One moment, the men of the Southern Water Tribe Village had left for a fishing trip, only gone for a little over an hour, and the next...Flames had begun to devour everything. None of the women or the children had seen the iron ships set shore, no one had seen the black and red clad soldiers surround the village. They were just suddenly there.

It was obvious that it wasn't a spur of the moment raid. The Fire Nation soldiers were too well organized, too together, to have it not be planned out. Even the naivest of the Water Tribe women could tell that; they had been laying in wait for the men to leave the village and now, when the women and kids were on their own, they were making their move.

_"You! Stop!"_

_"Where is it?" _

_"Tell us which one she is!"_

Shouts of the soldiers, demanding and harsh, filled the air first. They wanted the Water-Bender. They knew there was one there, because there had to be, and they wanted it destroyed. After all, one less bender meant one less chance of a new Avatar being born.

_"Momma!"_

_"No! Lem'me in!"_

_"I don' wanna go!"_

After that came the cries of the children, the oldest being eight and the youngest being but a few months, pleading for their parents. For their homes that were being burnt down in front of them. For the big bad men to just leave them alone.

And then the woman, old and young, mothers and child-less, took up the saddend cry. Wails of pain, screams for their children to flee, _'find the men'_, and not look back. Some tried to run, others tried to fight; all tried to get the kids out of the way of the flames.

It was all happening so fast.

In the middle of the fighting, in the middle of the scarlet flames and the crimson snow and all the other blurring colors, a woman lay wounded on the ground. By her side sat a small boy, eight years old, with tears in his eyes. He wasn't stupid, he knew what was happening. He knew that the men in the iron ships had just killed his mother.

Even if she wasn't dead yet.

Hand weakly clasping his, the once beautiful Kyo turned her rapidly dulling eyes onto her son; once vibrant cerulean, the same color as the ocean surrounding their home, but now nothing more than breath-fogged ice.

"So-okka...My...little boy..." Her voice was soft, rasping, weak. "W-where's Kat'ra?"

Large blue eyes, the same shade as his mothers once were, blinked as Sokka looked back down at his mother. His sister? He'd already hidden her, tucked her away in a set of ice-caves near the village and told her to stay there until he came back. " 'Tara's safe, Momma."

"G-good..." She had to stop speaking when violent coughs wracked through her body, a dark red dripping from her mouth and down her chin. "Sok'a...Pro-romise me...You'll prote-ect your sister."

Of course he'd protect Katara. It was silly to think other wise. After all, it was his job as an older brother to make sure his baby sister was always safe. " 'Course, Momma."

"N-no." Kyo let her head shake, a feeble attempt at getting her point across. "P-romise me."

"I promise, Momma." Sokka gave the older woman's hand, so much larger compared to his, a squeeze as he spoke. "I'll always protect her. With everything I got. Don' worry!" And even as such a little boy, he meant every word of it.

His mother left his life too fast.


	3. Hakoda

A/N: Aren't you all lucky? You get three chapters in one day! This is only because they were already written so don't be expecting this all the time! I'm not that quick of a writer. ^.^

Hope you all enjoy this!

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><p><em>-Hakoda-<em>

"There has to be someone here to guard the village, Chiron!" Hakoda exclaimed angrily. His voice came out as a harsh jumble of words, just low enough to not be classified as a shout.

Chiron pursed her lips together as she looked at the man in front of her. Her aged eyes, framed by several locks of silver-grey hair that had slipped out of it's bun, narrowed at him as she tucked her legs underneath of her. "So leave one of your men here."

"I can't do that! We need everyone that can fight out there, Chiron. Everyone!" And that was true, he told himself, they would need every able bodied man they could get their hands on if they even wanted to think about bringing down the Fire Nation. Even if it meant leaving _him_ behind. He was too young to come anyways.

"You're letting an anger-filled mind blind you, Hakoda." Chiron's words were crisp, clean. She wasn't playing around with him, she was trying to get a point across. "I miss her just as much as you do, more so, really. She _was_ my daughter, if you remember."

"She was your daughter, but she was my wife. And I let them take her from me!"

He was pacing again, back and forth, from side to side, across the small tent that Chiron had spent her life in. The scent of ash and burnt flesh coated the Lion-seal pelt walls, a scent that would forever remind the people of the Southern Water Tribe of all that they had lost only the week before.

"And he's your son, and she your daughter. Are you really willing to leave them? Right after their mother left them?" It was so difficult to keep her voice straight and even when talking about her daughter like that. Her beautiful daughter that looked so much like her gorgeous grand-daughter it almost hurt. But somehow she managed.

For a moment, Hakoda faultered in his pacing. One foot held inches off the ground, eyes locked on something only he could see, but then the pacing started again and he had his face set in that same stony line.

"Chiron. I have to go. I have to take the men with me. And the village needs someone to protect it. If you have a better idea, by all means, tell me. I'm more than happy to hear it." And though his voice was nothing but anger and bitterness, hidden deep behind his storm-cloud eyes, Chiron could see the pain that he felt; not just over loosing the woman that he had planned to spend his life with, but the pain that making the decision to leave his children as well caused him.

And Chiron, for all the years that she had lived, couldn't think of a single thing to say to the broken-man in front of her. Because, really, what could one say to a man that had lost his anchor and was leaving behind his world?

"Dad?" The voice was so young, so easily recognizable as the boy that they were talking about, and yet both Water Tribe adults jerked at the sound.

"Sokka? What are you doing in here! I told you that you were supposed to be putting Katara to bed!" And even though there was nothing but rage in the older man's voice, the dark-haired child didn't even flinch.

"Dad, you don't have to worry. I'll make sure the village is taken care of." A pause as something flitted in the boy's ocean-blue eyes, something unrecognizable but that certaintly shouldn't be there, and then he was giving his father a look of pure determination. "I promise, I won't let anything happen to them."

And another promise settled itself on his shoulders.


	4. Aang

A/N: Wow! to think, I've had eighty people read this story already! That just makes me all giddy and warm feeling. ^.^ I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter!

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><p><em>-Aang-<em>

"Alright, tell me what's going through that bald head of yours." Sokka let a teasing smile cross his face as he dropped down next to the young bender.

Aang had been sitting out on the edge of the camp, legs crossed and hands in his lap, back against the tree, for almost three hours. Which really wasn't that unusual. Being a monk and all, Aang was prone to random spurts of meditation. But something just seemed odd about it this time. A churning, rolling feeling in the pit of Sokka's stomache had started up when Aang first leftt their group to sit on his own and it hadn't gone away yet.

Aang's light blue eyes didn't leave whatever grain of sand they were studying, staying down-cast, when he spoke. "Nothing, Sokka. I...I'm fine. Really!"

And it was so obvious that he wasn't. The smile dropped from Sokka's face, lips pursing together slightly, as the younger boy shifted beside him. Practically every thing about Aang was screaming '_I'm not all right!_'. It would take a blind person not to see it.

"Yeah," Sokka kept his voice dry as he spoke, making sure that Aang kne he wasn't actually joking around. "and I'm the leader of the Fire Nation. Now stop acting like a doofus and tell me what's going on."

Aang tilted his head slightly, light blue eyes giving Sokka a wary glance, before he let out a sigh. Really, he didn't know what he had been thinking trying to play off being upset as meditating. Even when he'd come up with it, he thought that it was a stupid idea. Granted, he had been expecting Katara to be the one to come over and talk with him.

"Really, Sokka, it's nothing." The Avatar muttered.

"Uh huh. So it's got nothing to do with the fight we had earlier with Fire Nation soldiers?" Sokka arched one of his eye-brows. Of course, he already knew that was exactly what had spurned this sudden bout of moodiness. There wasn't anything else that could have brought it up.

Of course, Aang didn't say anything to answer him; choosing this time to keep just keep quiet and hope that Sokka would get bored and go away.

Luckily for the young Airbender, Sokka had learned to be a patient person years ago. "Aang, if you don't tell me what's going on, I'm not going to be able to help and it'll just keep bothering you." Unluckily for him, Sokka was also a master at guilting people into doing what he wanted. "And then Katara's going to notice and she'll get worried."

Sokka could practically feel the coming off of the younger boy in waves.

"But...I don't want you guys to worry about me either, Sokka!" Aang turned to look at him, blue eyes laced with sadness and worry, and the most pleading look on his face. It was obvious that he wanted Sokka to go away, and at the same time, he also wanted him to keep asking about what was wrong.

"Well, you're just going to have to tell me anyways." Silence. Resisting the urge to sigh, Sokka gave Aang a leveling stare. "Listen up Aang, it's either me you're telling or Katara."

Resolve shattering, Aang turned his gaze from Sokka to the sky. He couldn't tell Katara. The older Bender would never stop thinking about him in battle then and she'd get distracted and then she'd get hurt. "It's just...I don't want to have to kill them, Sokka."

Sokka blinked. Once, twice, three times, before slinging an arm around the monk's shoulder and pulling him against his side. He didn't miss the tears welling up in Aang's eyes, tears there at just the thought of taking another person's life, and he knew that a simple hug wasn't going to make it better for the boy. But for the moment, it would give him the warm, fuzzy feeling that Sokka had missed out on over the years.

"Hey, hey! Don't get all upset like that, Aang." He let his voice take on the matronly tone he used to speak to Katara in when she was little and had fallen on the ice. "And don't worry about it any more either, Aang."

"But-"

"No." Sokka's voice was still gentle, still soothing, but there was an intensity behind it that Aang hadn't heard before. A seriousness that said, '_I mean business_'. "You don't have to worry about it anymore, Aang. I promise you. I won't let you be forced into doing that."

And, because of those few words, Sokka let the blood coat his own hands, let it soak into his skin so it never came out and the sight was always there whenever he closed his eyes, so that he could spare the little Air-Bender that should never have been brought into the war in the first place.


	5. Suki

A/N: This was horribly hard for me to wright up because I'm not a big Suki fan. I don't think it turned out too badly though. Hopefully, you all agree with me!

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><p><em>-Suki-<em>

It had been a long night for Sokka. His dreams were of memories, his memories of ashen covered snow and blood covered hands, and when his mind could supply no more horror stories to force him to remember, it would spin knew ones that were almost worse than the real ones. Ones where he lost Katara, where his village was destroyed, where everything around him went up in flames and there was nothing that he could do to stop it.

Eventually, after he woke up completely twisted in his sleeping bag and gasping for breath that he should have had, Sokka had just foregone the whole attempting process and left his tent. No, after a night like that, the most soothing place for him would be out by the edge of the forest where he would have good view of the moon.

So that's where he went. The trouble was, when he got there, the moon wasn't around. What was around, however, was a trembling, shaking Suki. She looked frail, a word never before uttered even in his mind in the same sentence as her name, as though the wind itself would knock her down if it blew too hard.

And, judging from the bags under her blood-shot eyes, Sokka could tell that he was not the only one having a sleep-less night.

"Suki?" His voice had an odd waver to it, he thought to himself later; after it was all over and they were both in their seperate tents finally getting to sleep just in time for the sun to wake them up for the next day. It was careful, cautious, and at the same time, demanding of an answer. An explanation.

And when his strong, brave, warrior girl turned to him, his heart broke just a little bit more. The fiesty woman that he had come to know and love, not truely but enough to be called 'love', was no where to be seen. Instead, he saw a pale, broken doll who looked like she wanted nothing more than to return to her home island of Kyoshi and never again leave it's shores.

"Suki?" He repeated, voice louder than, as though raising it would shatter the broken girl he was looking at and give him back his warrior girl. But it didn't. If anything, it looked like she was shattering more.

Scrubbing at her eyes with one arm, her light green night-gown billowing around her, Suki turned her gaze away from him. And when she spoke, it was the voice of a scared child he heard and not the one he was used to.

"I...I dreamt..." Her voice broke then, shaky and uneven, and her eyes fluttered close as her sentence peetered away. But one hand had moved to clutch her left shoulder, fingers digging into the burn mark that the green cloth was hiding, and Sokka knew what her nightmare had been about.

It had been about sneering men and a laughing woman, cackeling as they told her no one was coming to save her. Jeering at her. Threatening her. About iron bars that she couldn't break through, a heat caused haze that never went away, and being forced to work until the skin on her hands blistered and popped. About a time when she thought she would die and when everyone else thought that she was already dead.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Sokka pushed his own nightmares, his own awful memories turned dreams turned panic filled nights, to the back of his mind. In just a few steps, he was standing by the quivering girls side and in just a few seconds, he had wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.

The shattered warrior girl balled her hands into the black shirt that he wore at night, matching the black pants he wore instead of actual night clothes, her forehead moved to rest on the spot between his shoulder and the base of his neck. He could feel her tears, warm in the night air, soaking into his skin; her whole body shaking against his as she cried out all the tears that had been held in during that awful time.

And in a voice that he was beginning to use more and more, Sokka told her the first and only thing to come to his mind. "It's okay now, Suki. It's okay. I promise, I will never let them take you again. Ever."

Another small line was added to his forehead, another small piece of his heart and his soul and his life devoted into protecting someone that wasn't himself. And when battle came, it was just another person's safety that weighted heavily on his mind.


	6. Yue

A/N: So this is really dissapointing. My stats say that there have been over 500 people that have read this story and, yet, I don't have a single review for it. I'm not going to stop writing just because there are no reviews but don't be expecting the updates to come any time soon. Unless I get a major brainwave for this story or I get at least a few reviews, there's not going to be any updates any time soon.

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><p><em>-Yue-<em>

It wasn't right! That thing in front of him, with the ghostly voice and stinging words, wasn't her. It couldn't be. Yue would never, ever, say something like that to him. Even if it was completely and utterly true. But those wouldn't have left hsi sweet, caring Princess's mouth.

_You didn't protect me._

Sokka stumbled back from the light-cloaked figure, eye's never leaving it's glowing frame. He could feel his heart thudding painfully in his chest, each beat harsher than the last, and his breath catch in his throat.

_You didn't stop them._

Everytime Sokka took a step backwards, the marshy ground sucking at the soles of his boots, the vision in front of him would float closer. One arm, clad in ethereal blue cloth, reach out towards him; grasping at the air but finding nothing there.

_You let me go through with it._

Back pressed up against a vine-covered trunk, unable to go any further away from the woman in front of him, Sokka let out the smallest of whimpers. Not because he was afraid, but because he knew that everything the creature in front of him was saying was true.

_You let them kill me, Sokka._

And there was such a finality behind those words, words that echoed through the swamp around him and cemented themselves into his mind, that even his mind couldn't find a way of argueing with them. Not that it would. After all, it was true. He was the reason that Yue was dead. If he'd fought harder, defeated the Fire Nation before they killed Tue, then she would never have had to sacrifice herself. She'd still be alive.

_Why?_

"I'm sorry!" He found himself blurting out. "I'm sorry, Yue!"

_It's your fault._

"I know it is and I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to die! I didn't!" There was an edge of hysteria to his words that he didn't recognize.

_You were too weak._

"I was, but I'm stronger now!" Panic laced his words but, though he felt like someone had just pierced his heart through, he couldn't actually bring himself to cry.

_I'm dead._

"Please..." He couldn't even figure out what he was asking for that time. Sokka repeated the whispered request anyways. "Please..."

_It hurt._

"Spirits, Yue, I'm so sorry!" He could feel his heart stutter to a stop in his chest, twist painfully, and then slowly start again.

_They don't deserve to feel this._

And something clicked into place in the back of Sokka's mind. "They won't Yue, I promise, they won't. I won't ever let be forced to make that sort of descision again! I promise you!"

And the look on her face as her body faded away, sad and proud at the same time, would forever be etched into his mind. Because he caused it and, even if it killed him, he would never let that look settle on any one else's face.


	7. Toph

A/N: Thank you Any-Muse and Anon for reviewing! I'm glad you liked the story! And, I know Anon, it was jsut so upsetting to know there were so many people reading and I hadn't gotten a single review yet...I don't think I've ever asked for a review in a story before that. I hope that everyone here enjoys this next chapter; and know that there aren't very many left!

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><p><em>-Toph-<em>

Everything was burning. His back, his legs, his arms, everything! Pain shot up and down him, coursing through his muscels, shooting through his bones, and every time he took a step, it only made it worse.

_It was a nice day out, Sokka thought to himself. Not too bright, not too cloudy, and it was that perfect mild temperature that he'd decided every day should be. The clearing they had landed in had a bunch of fruit tree's, which meant that Sokka didn't have to run around trying to find meat for every one. And, best of all, there was no sign of the Fire Nation any where. In fact, there was no sign of __any one__ nearby._

He could feel blood dripping down his forehead, running into his eyes and blurring his vision. It stung, badly, but Sokka forced himself not to blink. If he blinked, he could miss her.

_Katara had taken advantage of the nice weather, grabbing up the scroll on Water-Bending that she had 'borrowed' from pirates, and dissapeared down to the nearby stream for some 'along-time'. Aang had also taken advantage of the weather; both he and Momo had taken off into the tree's to play around with his glider. Sokka had been going to spend his day lazing around, something he had rarely been able to do since he was a little boy, before he noticed something..._

Something was wrong with his leg. The sickening popping noise it made everytime he took a step, everytime he moved it, just seemed to add to the pain shooting through his knee. But he couldn't stop running. If he did, he wouldn't make it to her in time.

_Toph was sitting, legs pulled to her chest, leaning against one of Appa's front legs. She seemed different than usual, Sokka thought, as he made his way over to her. More subdued. He'd been expecting her to be out making advantage of the day; maybe spending some time over with Katara or messing around on the muddy banks of the stream. Not sitting, alone, with Appa._

And then he saw her, over by the ledge of the cliff. She was still fighting, because she was always fighting, but the Fire Nation soldiers were slowly pushing her back. Closer, closer, closer, closer...

_It had taken him a while to get her to tell him anything. Toph was being stubborn, like she always was, and even when she told Sokka what was bothering her, it didn't make him think any less of her. After all, he thought, flying was a completely reasonable fear for someone that couldn't see. Or for any one, for that matter._

He stumbled, a root catching his foot, and he barely kept himself from falling onto the ground. The pain shooting through his leg now, through his leg and up into his back, was enough to make him nausous; his stomach rolling and thrashing and threatening to upheave everything that he'd eaten earlier that day.

_But there was something about the way she said it that made Sokka think, to himself and not out loud, that it wasn't just flying she was talking about when she said 'I'm afraid of falling'. He was smart enough to keep that thought to himself and not share it with the fiesty little girl beside him; after all, he didn't want to be beaten into pulp that day. It was too nice out for that to happen._

A soldier punched out, a stream of fire flying from his fist, and she bent backwards to avoid it. But there wasn't enough of a footing and, with a frightened yelp, she lost her balance. Arms waved in the air, fear plastered onto her face, and she was falling backwards towards the crashing water below.

_"Don't worry, Toph." Sokka slung an arm around the brunnette's shoulder, completely oblivious to the deep red that was suddenly spreading across her cheeks, after he let himself drop down next to her. But, even though the motion was a simple gesture, his words were filled with a seriousness. A truthfulness._

Yanking his leg out from beneath the root that was trapping it, another sickening crack filling the air, Sokka bolted towards the cliff. The footing there was slick from the water splashing up onto the cliffs but he lunged forewards anyways. An awful ache shot through his arm as he shot it out to grab the girl, a blood-covered hand wrapping around Toph's dirt-smeared one.

_"I promise, I'll never let you fall."_

And, whether it was falling into something that she couldn't see, falling from words that hurt from daggers, or even falling because she just couldn't be tough Toph anymore, he would always be there to catch her and pull her up to safety before it was too late.


	8. Iroh

A/N: Woo! Only one to two more chapters before the stories over! Will it be missed? I doubt it! Will I have fun writing it anyways? You bet! I hope you all have fun reading this too!

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><p><em>-Iroh-<em>

"You're almost the same age as him, Sokka." Iroh mused as he sat down across from the Water Tribe boy, legs folding neatly beneath him and a small smile crossing his face.

Sokka made a small humming noise in the back of his throat but didn't look up from the map that he was studying. It had to be memorized, every road and every trail, every cliff and splotch of forest, before they went out in the morning. The older man's nonsensical ramblings didn't need his whole attention, anyways.

The answer suited Iroh just fine though and he let out a sigh, one hand resting on his knee and the other trailing in the sand he was sitting in. "Now, I know that you don't want to hear this but it's true."

Another grunt, a fleeting glance, but no other answer.

"You are a lot like my nephew." Iroh explained. The hand that had been doodling absent shapes in the sand waved through the air in front of him.

This time, Sokka looked up. There was an almost irritated look on his tanned face and, in the light of the dying fire, Iroh saw a face far older than the boy actually was. "No. I'm not. I'm nothing like him!" It wasn't meant to be an insult, Sokka knew, but he couldn't help but take it that way. With everything that Zuko and his people had done to Sokka...it was hard to take it any other way.

"Do not get so offended, Sokka. I am merely stating a fact." Iroh smiled slightly, eyes drifting from Sokka down into the fire. "He is a very over-protective boy. Always trying to make sure that I don't get hurt. It was why he was caught actually..."

The smile slipped from Iroh's face as Sokka carefully folded up his map and sat it down beside him. It was late, late enough that everyone else had gone to sleep, and he wouldn't be able to make out the lines on the parchment if he didn't put some more wood on the fire soon. As soon as Iroh was done talking, that was what he would do. "Did you need something, Iroh? Because, no offense or anything, I'm sure that Aang loves hearing your stories but I've got work to do before I can get some sleep."

"Actually," the old warrior pursed his lips together, eyes hardening as he leaned foreward. "there is. I have a favor to ask of you. I know that you don't want to hear it but, I'm afraid, you are the only one I can trust with it."

Sokka knew that listening to an old man talk would ruin his night. He knew that he should just go get that fire-wood and finish planning so he could get some sleep, he didn't owe the retired general anything after all, but there was something familar about the tone that his voice had taken that made him stay put. He was too soft and he knew it, but he couldn't just leave the man alone when he seemed so upset. So broken.

"What do you want from me?" Sokka asked, voice almost resigned sounding.

"They've had my nephew for almost a week now. He is a strong boy but he's not that strong. I know what they do to prisoners when they want information from them and it's not something I want to hear Zuko had to go through. It seems that I failed at that, though." Iroh's voice dropped a couple of octaves and his eyes clouded over, caught in a memory but not quite seperate from the present.

A sigh welled up in Sokka's chest, one that he just barely held in, as he met Iroh's eyes; their gazes almost twin, both showing the heavy-hearts that the two hid. "And you want what from me? Aang already told you we were going to get him back."

Deep inside, Sokka would admit that he already knew.

"Help him heal." Iroh stated, voice suggesting that he was only asking Sokka for a cup of water. "He was broken before but, when the Avatar brings him back, he will be shattered. Even if he doesn't show it. And, while I like your companions just fine, they will not all accept him as easily as the Avatar does."

Again, he wanted to say 'no'. To tell Iroh to heal Zuko himself, that he wanted nothing to do with the branded prince of the Fire Nation. But, again, he couldn't. And, as the fire inbetween the flickered down to embers and Sokka stood up to finally fetch the wood to replenish it, he nodded.

"I'll try. I can't say that it will work but I promise you, I will try."

Sokka forced all the conviction he could into those few words so, even though Iroh couldn't see his face anymore, he would know that it was the truth. Once Sokka made a promise, he didn't go back on it. Not even when it was a promise he was loathe to make and even more loathe to complete.


End file.
